


love's not for show

by acezukos (purplefennels7)



Series: abby does fleet week 2k20 [5]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Didn't Know They Were Dating, M/M, POV Outsider, POV Sokka (Avatar), Reverse Fake/Pretend Relationship, sokka schemes, toph is a tiny troll
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-08-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:20:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25662733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purplefennels7/pseuds/acezukos
Summary: Sokka is utterly convinced that his dad and Bato are together, and enlists the gaang in trying to tell them they're okay with it. The only problem with his master plan is that they're...not.
Relationships: Bato/Hakoda (Avatar)
Series: abby does fleet week 2k20 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1851535
Comments: 33
Kudos: 242
Collections: Bakoda Fleet Week 2020





	love's not for show

**Author's Note:**

> i am. SO LATE with this one i blame the term paper that ate up my entire day and then i fell asleep on my laptop at 2am lmao.... i was gonna backdate it to appear like i kept my prompt fill streak but my sense of responsibility said No :') anyway this is a pile of (silly, unedited) fluff there is NO war trauma here, no ma'am.

It takes about five minutes of the first communal dinner after Zuko’s coronation for Sokka to decide that his dad and Bato are definitely together. It’s just his friends plus his dad, Bato, and Zuko’s uncle around the table in one of the smaller palace dining rooms, because after standing on ceremony for the coronation plus the week’s worth of celebration after it, all of them are solidly sick of spending their meals schmoozing with diplomats and minor nobility. To be frank, Sokka’s kind of surprised that he hadn’t figured it out earlier - he  _ had _ only seen them together once recently, right before the invasion on the Day of Black Sun, and he’d had bigger things to worry about then, but the time when Bato had been practically co-parenting them before they’d sailed to war springs to mind as well. Now, his dad is literally always in Bato’s space, whether he’s putting a hand on his arm to laugh or reaching over him to grab the salt as Katara passes it up the table to him or just kind of  _ leaning _ as they take turns telling stories of everything they’d gotten up to during the war. The physical contact thing itself isn’t weird; his dad is always clapping people on the back and he knows he vastly prefers the forearm grab, or even a handshake, more than the bows they’ve all been doing while in the Fire Nation. The weird part is just the absolute lack of personal space that they’ve managed to achieve even while seated in chairs a respectable foot apart. 

And the leaning. The leaning is weird.

As Suki starts telling the story of the first time he and Katara and Aang had come to Kiyoshi Island, rolling right over his and Zuko’s protests, Sokka glances over at Katara and tips his head meaningfully to the other side of the table.

_ What? _ she mouths, glancing over and then back at him like everything is normal. He widens his eyes and nods at Dad and Bato again, where they’re now - oh, for spirits’ sakes, Dad is literally picking food off Bato’s plate. It’s like they aren’t even trying to be subtle. 

_ Can’t you see it? _ he mouths back, suppressing the urge just to point. She just squints at him, then shakes her head and turns back to her food with a roll of her eyes, and that’s really just unfair. He looks around the table for someone else that might have simple visual comprehension, but Suki is still talking, Zuko has his head buried in his hands as Toph pokes him gleefully, and Aang and Iroh appear to be engrossed in some sort of conversation about tea. 

He has the worst friends.

Taking another bite out of his over-spiced fish, he decides that his post-war hiatus on being the plan guy can take a...double hiatus. For this. 

First he has to get his friends to believe him, and then he has to get Dad and Bato to somehow tell them the truth without freaking them out, because he’s pretty sure that if they’ve been keeping it a secret from them, it’s because Dad doesn’t want him and Katara to feel like he’s replacing Mom. And, well, yeah, that’s a pretty legitimate worry. He hasn’t yet told Katara what he’d said to Toph, about how he sees Mom in her every day, but sometimes he looks at her and all he can think of is how he’s starting to forget what her voice sounded like. On top of it, he still can’t look at the moon without feeling an aching sort of pain in his chest, and he and Yue had barely even dated before everything had gone sideways at the North Pole. He can’t even think what it must’ve been like for Dad.

At this point, though - well. He’s eating basically a family dinner in the royal palace of the Fire Nation and all the people in this room played a personal part in ending a hundred year war. If he uses his own experience as an example, he doesn’t think Dad has ever stopped loving Mom. If he and Bato are happy, now, Sokka thinks he won’t complain. They all deserve to be happy.

He sits back in his chair, takes another look across the table, and starts to plan.

Later, after the last of the plates have been cleared away and Iroh has sent a few last rounds of tea around the table, Dad yawns and pushes out of his chair.

“Think it’s time for bed,” he says, coming around the table to wrap Sokka and Katara in hugs. It doesn’t escape Sokka that Bato immediately gets up too, patting the two of them on the shoulder before following Dad out of the dining room with a wave to the rest of the table. Iroh, returning from the sideboard with a fresh pot of tea, looks around at them and smiles. 

“Well, it seems I’m outnumbered. I’ll leave you to it, then. If you’d care for one last cup of tea?” They all nod, and after filling their cups, Iroh gives Zuko a hug and then heads out of the room as well, humming something under his breath.

“Okay, no one move,” Sokka says loudly, even though no one’s moved yet. His friends freeze, Zuko still halfway into his chair from when he’d gotten up to hug his uncle. 

“Is this about whatever you were mouthing at me in the middle of dinner?” Katara asks. 

“Mouthing stuff isn’t fair,” Toph chimes in, waving a hand in front of her face. Sokka sighs. 

“I was mouthing at Katara, because she’s my sister. But I need the rest of you guys’ help with this, anyway, so Katara, you aren’t allowed to be mad at me when you hear this because I tried.” Katara narrows her eyes at him, and he barrels on before she can whack him with water or something like that. “Do you, uh, did you see anything like my dad and Bato being...weird? Like, really close. At dinner.”  _ Nice, Sokka. Weird. At dinner. _ Clearly, he still has to work on the public speaking bit of being the plan guy.

He looks up and sees five pairs of eyes staring at him.

“What? Did you?”

“I neither confirm nor deny,” Toph says, grinning and kicking her feet up onto the table. 

“Haven’t they...always been like that?” Aang ventures. 

“They were sitting rather close,” Suki muses at the same time. Sokka points at the two of them.

“See? They saw it, I’m not crazy.” Zuko nods, too, although he seems more preoccupied with rearranging himself in his chair so he can sit with his legs propped up.

“What are you thinking?” Katara asks, and, well, that isn’t a no. So he tells them.

“I’m down,” Toph says immediately, when he’s done.  _ For chaos, _ Sokka finishes in his head. He’s been staring at his hands the whole time he’d been talking, but now looks up so he can meet Katara’s eyes.

“Oh, fine,” she says. Toph cheers, and the rest of the group acquiesces in short order. 

“You’re not upset about it, right?” he asks Katara later as they’re preparing to go to bed. She glances at him, looking surprised, and shakes her head.

“I’m not. I think, well, moving on is different from moving forward. We aren’t forgetting Mom, and I guess if Dad is happy...then I can be happy for them too.”

“That’s exactly what I was thinking.” They smile at each other, and Sokka feels oddly validated in her agreement. 

* * *

They enact Sokka’s plan at yet another of the fancy diplomatic dinners that they all keep getting roped into as the peace negotiations pick up speed. Technically, Aang and Toph are the ones actually doing things; Katara and Sokka are ensconced on a low seat off to the side of the grand ballroom, and poor Zuko is trapped greeting people and has roped Suki into standing guard in retaliation for not being present.

“Can you see them?” Sokka hisses to Katara, who’s peering out from behind the plant next to their bench at where Toph and Aang are attempting to casually sidle up to where Bato is nursing a drink on the other side of the room. 

“Sort of,” Katara whispers back, elbowing him in the arm as she shifts positions. “Shh.”

“Did you just shush me? You can’t even hear them!” Sokka protests, trying to lean around her to look for himself. The elbow to the side feels a little more deliberate this time.

“Shh! Toph’s coming back.” Sokka furrows his brows.

“Already? That was quick.” He glances up at the dais and shrugs at Suki’s raised eyebrows.

“It wasn’t exactly a long conversation they needed to have,” Katara says as Toph walks over and plops down on the bench beside them.

“So?” Sokka asks, looking expectantly at her.

“Hmm,” she says, tapping a finger against her chin. “I can’t say.” Sokka’s eyes nearly bug out of his head. 

“What do you mean you  _ can’t say?” _

“I just can’t. Feet aren’t working.” She picks her feet off the ground and wiggles her toes at Sokka. “See?”

Sokka stares at her, then at where Aang is coming back, and fights not to scream.

“He just looked at me really weird,” Aang reports as he comes to a stop in front of them. “I think he said something like ‘oh spirits,’ and then he disappeared.” He puts his hands up at his sides, looking rather unbothered despite the awkward energy of his entire statement.

“Sorry, Snoozles,” Toph says, punching him in the shoulder. “Guess you were wrong about this one.” Sokka blows out a sigh, climbing to his feet and trying to look out at the crowd. No matter how hard he looks, though, he doesn’t see Bato’s tall form anywhere.

“I guess,” he says eventually, shoulders drooping. He’d been  _ really sure _ about this one. 

“Hm. Sokka, can you get me some jelly tarts?” Katara asks, and it’s clearly a diversion, but it’s working anyway. Toph pops up and is dragging him off towards the buffet table before he can protest, and those desserts do look very good. He shakes his head at the questioning looks he’s getting from Zuko and Suki, and generally just tries to put the whole thing out of his head. He knows when he’s beat, and if they aren’t together, then they aren’t together. Even if it was a waste of a master plan.

* * *

In a hallway off the side of the ballroom, there is a very different conversation taking place. 

“Koda,” Bato says carefully, having grabbed Hakoda on his way back from outside. “Why did the Avatar just ask me if we were dating?” Hakoda blinks at him.

“Who asked what?”

“Aang. The Avatar.” 

“I know who  _ Aang _ is,” Hakoda says, looking mildly offended. “He asked you what?”

“If we, you and I, were dating.” Another round of confused blinking. 

“But...we’re not.” 

“Right. Okay.” They stand and stare at each other for another second, and then Hakoda glances down the hallway in the direction of the ballroom and suddenly dodges behind Bato. “What are you doing?” 

“Shh, hiding. That woman’s been pestering me all night.” 

“You should make friends,” Bato teases, but all the same moves closer to the wall to better shield Hakoda from the view of the woman in Earth Kingdom green that’s popped her head into the hallway. 

“I have you already, why do I need more? Anyway, I think she wants to be more than  _ friends.”  _ And really, there was no reason for Bato’s stomach to drop like that when he processes the implication. 

“Well, if you keep talking then you won’t be doing a very good job at hiding.” Hakoda presses closer to his back in response.

“Whatever,” he whispers, and he’s close enough that Bato can feel it as he shakes his head. “Is she still there?” Bato glances up again, nearly having forgotten why they were still standing there. The hallway is empty.

“She’s gone,” he says at a regular volume. Hakoda huffs out a breath and steps out from behind him, and irrationally, Bato misses his warmth.

“Finally.” He glances up and squints at Bato, who looks helplessly back, feeling pinned in place even though they’re nowhere near each other. “Are you alright? Aang probably didn’t mean anything of it, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“No!” Bato exclaims, surprised. “No, I’m fine. It isn’t Aang, that didn’t bother me.” 

“If you say so,” Hakoda replies, looking skeptical, but starts walking back towards the ballroom. Bato falls into step beside him, feeling oddly off-kilter. He hadn’t been lying, he hadn’t been  _ bothered  _ by what Aang had said, but something about it has set him on edge.

He pays a little closer attention as they dive back into the crowd, and once he starts noticing things, he can’t seem to stop. There’s the way that Hakoda always looks to him first for a second opinion on what some dignitary is saying, the way they tend to gravitate together a little closer than propriety strictly provides for, the way they both put hands on each other’s shoulders or upper arms to get the other’s attention. As Hakoda leans up to whisper something scathing about the outfit of some noble into Bato’s ear to make him laugh, and he’s hit with a warm rush of fondness when he looks back at him, he thinks about Aang’s question from earlier, and thinks, oh. 

_ Oh. _

But even as he spends the rest of the night playing back essentially his entire life and watching as every one of his interactions with his best friend shifts slightly to one side, Hakoda seems entirely oblivious to it all. Coupled with the fact that he’d pretty clearly said  _ no _ earlier when he’d heard about Aang’s question, Bato thinks that seems like a pretty good argument in favour of not saying anything. They’ve been friends nearly their entire lives, and the truth is that neither of them would likely be alive today if they hadn’t had each other, both during the war and before it. As unthinkable as the possibility of losing their friendship might seem, seeing as Hakoda is perfectly aware that Bato has never preferred women and never had a problem with that, this is different. This is between them, and Bato can’t bring himself to take the leap.

He’s laying awake counting the stitches in the bed canopy, hours after the party has wound down and he’s said his good nights, when there’s suddenly a pounding on his door. He considers not getting up - it’s an ungodly hour in the morning and he should by all rights be asleep, thank you to whatever maniac is also awake - but eventually groans and drags himself out of bed. He’s awake anyway. 

When he pulls the door open, he’s met by the sight of Hakoda, looking ruffled and mildly distressed. Concern immediately spikes in his chest, but before he can ask him what’s wrong, Hakoda’s already blurting something out.

“Are we dating?”

Hang on. What?

All he’s able to register right now is that he’s pretty sure he’s heard the exact same thing within the past twelve hours, and that’s exactly what comes out of his mouth. 

“Haven’t we just had this conversation?” 

“Yes, but, look, you’re pretty much the kids’ second parent. We shared a cabin on the ship. And a tent. And I know that’s because we didn’t have very much space but let’s face it we could’ve gotten some of the others to double up, and what I’m saying is I think we’ve been very stupid, please don’t hate me.” Bato stares. In his defense, it is very early and he should not be expected to be coherent, and this is, frankly, a lot of information to receive in about ten seconds. “Look, I’ll just go, I might be dreaming right now anyway.”

“Wait!” Bato exclaims, catching Hakoda’s hand as he starts to turn away, dejection written on his face. “I’m sorry, don’t, I’m just. Thinking.” A little tentative hope blooms on Hakoda’s face, and Bato thinks,  _ screw it. _

He leans in, giving Hakoda plenty of time to change his mind - but he doesn’t, he leans up too, and then they meet in the middle, one of Hakoda’s hands on Bato’s shoulder, one of Bato’s on Hakoda’s back. And it’s like a ship coming to dock, like the wind is blowing him poleward, because Hakoda is the part of home that he’s always carried with him, no matter how far they strayed. Hakoda makes a quiet noise against him, and Bato tugs him closer, feeling like they’re the only two people in the world. 

“Hey,” he whispers as he finally pulls away, feeling like he’s a teenager again, dumb and maybe in love.

“Hi,” Hakoda says, equally soft, and then essentially collapses into him. Bato brings his arms up automatically to catch him.

“Woah. Have you slept at all?” Hakoda shakes his head, mumbling something into Bato’s shirt. “Hmm? Can’t hear you, love.” The pet name slips out on accident, but before he can backpedal Hakoda raises his head and his smile nearly knocks Bato to the ground.

“Haven’t. Been thinking.” Bato smiles back.

“About me?” It’s stupid and sappy, but Hakoda nods anyway.

“Yeah. Can I stay?” 

“Of course.”

Bato wakes up with Hakoda curled into him like a comma, face slack in sleep, and when he leans down to kiss him awake, the soft wonder on his face when his eyes flicker open convinces him, finally, that this is real.

They break the news to Sokka and Katara that night, when they’re sitting together in one of the palace gardens after dinner. 

“We’re happy for you guys,” Katara says, beaming at both of them. Sokka looks a little bit like he’s going to catch fire, and she looks over at him and sighs. “But, we thought we knew?” Hakoda squints at her.

“Wait, is  _ that _ what that thing at the dinner the other night was about? Bato was so confused.”

“Yes,” Sokka says emphatically. “Why’d you tell Aang you weren’t together?” Twin sheepish looks appear on both their faces.

“We sort of just established this…”

“This morning,” Bato finishes. “It turns out we’ve been a little blind to it ourselves.”

“Literally  _ how,” _ Sokka groans, facepalming. “It was so obvious. Ow, Katara.” 

“It’s alright,” Hakoda says, chuckling. “It was pretty obvious.” 

“Awesome. That means my plan  _ didn’t _ fail, at least, sort of.” Sokka grins. “And I’m happy for you, too. Obviously.”

**Author's Note:**

> written for day 5 of [bakoda fleet week](https://bakodafleetweek.tumblr.com) for the _reverse fake/pretend relationship_ prompt. would die for comments and kudos <3 
> 
> on [tumblr](https://acezukos.tumblr.com)


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